Celebrating 10,000 Bags of Help projects

Posted on 02 February 2018

Look around you anywhere in London and you’ll find people working hard to benefit their communities – with projects ranging from food banks, community gardens or after school clubs to tree planting and litter picking. Tesco’s Bags of Help grant scheme has been a source of support for many of these projects, and today we’re celebrating a huge milestone: 10,000 projects funded by the scheme across the Great Britain.

Bags of Help is Tesco’s community grant scheme run in partnership with Groundwork, using the money raised from the carrier bag charge to fund local projects across Great Britain. Since 2015 the scheme has awarded £43 million of funding to 10,000 local projects across the UK. In London, over £3 million has been awarded to more than 750 projects.

Bags of Help awards funding for all kinds of projects and activities that benefit local communities, from improving community buildings and outdoor spaces, to new equipment, training coaches and volunteers, and hosting community events. You can use this interactive map to see where funding has been awarded near you, and you can read some of the inspiring stories from London’s Bags of Help funded projects here.

One of the great things about the scheme is that it gives the power to local people who know their area best to decide where they would like the money to be spent. All customers can vote on which project to fund using the blue tokens handed out at checkouts. And anyone can nominate a community project for funding – find out more here.

So next time you’re in your local Tesco store, make sure you get your blue token at the checkout so you can vote on project will receive funding in your area. And if you’re involved in a community project, don’t miss the chance to apply to receive up to £4,000. Find out more about how you can apply here.